SIU to speak to De Ruyter about his Eskom mafia claims, shocked he didn’t mention it before

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has confirmed that former Eskom group chief executive, André de Ruyter, will be called to give information on his claims of mafia-like cartels operating at Eskom in Mpumalanga and the alleged involvement of two serving Cabinet members in corruption at the power utility.

This follows De Ruyter’s explosive interview with eNCA last month, in which he alleged that the African National Congress (ANC) was involved in corruption at the struggling parastatal and that state security was missing in action.

Eskom corruption allegations

SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago on Thursday said the unit’s head, advocate Andy Mothibi, had instructed investigators looking into allegations of wide-scale corruption at Eskom to engage with De Ruyter on his claims.

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“The head of the SIU advocate Mothibi has instructed the investigating team in Eskom to call him [De Ruyter] and we’ll make sure that he gives that information,” said Kganyago in an interview with SABC News.

He added: “He doesn’t have to come because he was the CEO… He needs to be called to give us the information that we need because we cannot ignore it”.

SIU ‘shocked’

Kganyago said the SIU had frequent engagements with De Ruyter on their investigations at Eskom since his appointment as group chief executive in 2020.

He said the unit was “shocked” that De Ruyter did not disclose the explosive corruption allegations he made during his interview with eNCA.

“I can safely tell you now that he never told us about these ministers that are supposedly involved in this [corruption at Eskom].

“But now that it is in the public domain, it is of interest to us, because we are investigating under a proclamation and this is the kind of information that we need to know as the SIU,” said Kganyago.

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“It was a shock because we were working with him very well and exchanging information even with the team at Eskom.

“He might have his own reasons why he didn’t tell us about it, [but] it was important for us to know,” he added.

SIU proclamation 

The SIU has been authorised to investigate several allegations of corruption and maladministration at Eskom.

In December last year, the SIU said it was inundated with new corruption allegations with regard to the power utility. The unit said its preliminary investigations had revealed that it still needed to do further investigations into areas that its existing proclamations did not cover.

“Many of these allegations fall outside of the existing SIU Eskom proclamations. The SIU requested a proclamation amendment in terms of time and focus areas.

“The amendment authorises the SIU to investigate the following areas at Eskom: goods, works and services by Eskom’s Kusile, Medupi, Kendal, Matla, Duvha, Arnot, Tutuka and Grootvlei power stations as well as Eskom’s head office situated at Megawatt Park in Johannesburg,” the SIU said in a statement.

The SIU’s other investigations at Eskom centre on contracts for information technology and related services and any subsequent extensions or amendments as well as fuel oil supply contracts.

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